


Threefold

by MusicalLuna



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Ficlet Collection, Multi, Not Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase Two Compliant, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-30
Updated: 2017-01-09
Packaged: 2018-09-15 22:16:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9259868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MusicalLuna/pseuds/MusicalLuna
Summary: A collection of short Steve/Tony/Pepper fics originally posted on Tumblr.





	1. Tony Watches Pepper and Steve Dance and is SAD

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings and tags will be in the notes for each chapter.
> 
> \--
> 
>  **Warnings:** None
> 
>  **Tags:** Not Infidelity, Just Insecure Tony, Insecure!Tony, Angst, JARVIS POV, Melancholy, Kissing, Dancing, Pepper Teaching Steve to Dance, Tony Being a Sad Sorry Bastard

JARVIS sees Mister Stark’s gait falter when he first hears the soft music coming from the living room. He suspects Mister Stark is not as aware of the hour as he thought and the activity therein has surprised him. It causes hesitation until the low voices of Captain Rogers and Miss Potts reach his ears. He then edges forward to the doorway and peers around, the fingers of his left hand curling around the frame as his bare feet shuffle to bring him closer to the protective cover of the wall.

Captain Rogers and Miss Potts stand together in the center of the living room, arranged in an imperfect waltz posture; Miss Potts is recalling brief lessons from many years ago and JARVIS estimates that if she were to take a “refresher”, as it were, her posture would be quite immaculate.

Mister Stark pulls his gaze away from them long enough to glance around the room and find Miss Potts’ heels set carefully aside by the love seat at her back. Without them, she hardly reaches Captain Rogers’ shoulder, her face turned up toward his like a flower seeking the sun. Mister Stark’s eyes find the undone buttons at Captain Rogers’ throat after that; JARVIS can only speculate what goes through his mind then.

As Mister Stark and JARVIS watch on, silent, Miss Potts talks Captain Rogers through a simple box step and he dips his head forward to watch his feet as they take each halting step. Mister Stark’s eyes catch on the way Captain Rogers’ hair falls forward over his forehead, into the loose, messy locks of Miss Potts’, dropping to their faces when Captain Rogers chuckles at an awkward step and catches Miss Potts’ gaze. Their eyes crinkle at the corners.

Mister Stark leans his head against the door frame when a strand of hair slips into Miss Potts’ face and Captain Rogers’ releases her hand to tuck it behind her ear with the lightest touch. But then, rather than letting his hand drop, Captain Rogers brushes his fingertips over the shell of Miss Potts’ ear and JARVIS traces the movement of Mister Stark’s eyes as he watches Miss Potts’ pale eyelashes flutter closed.

She tilts her chin up, slowly, and Captain Rogers tilts his down, down, down and their lips touch. If JARVIS knew how to better read human body language, he thinks he could discern what passes between them. The kiss is still, chaste; nothing like the ones that have sent Mister Stark’s body temperature rocketing upward, with none of the clinging of post-mission kisses. His databanks tell him that there is something mournful in the lines of Captain Rogers and Miss Potts’ faces, though the elaborate network of muscle and sinew and bone beneath delicate skin makes it impossible to discern the origin or exact visible quality he can identify as such.

Mister Stark’s breathing has altered, as though there is something preventing him filling his lungs to capacity. The kiss ends as softly as it began and Miss Potts leans into Captain Rogers. He curls one loose arm around her, the other with fingers threaded through hers and they sway there together, hardly moving at all.

It is Mister Stark’s face that now bears the signs of melancholy. His gaze lingers first on Captain Rogers, studying every line and plane of his face with his workman’s eye, then Miss Potts’ in turn, equally careful, equally thorough. He sighs and scrubs his eyes with the heels of his palms, his back bowed as if there is a spot somewhere deep in his chest that pains him, though JARVIS knows him to be healthy at present. He draws back into the hall and sinks down, knees drawn up to his chest. He closes his eyes and drops his head back against the wall.

In the living room Captain Rogers and Miss Potts laugh.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Warnings:** None
> 
> **Tags:** Hurt!Steve, CA:TWS Tag, Established Relationship, Steve is an Idiot, Oblivious!Steve, Sam Wilson, Lack of Punctuation and Other Niceties, Language

sam is helping steve put on his pants when the door to the hospital room pops open and hits the wall with a bang  
  
they both flinch; steve so hard he cries out as the wound on his stomach sparks with agony, sam lurching into a fighting stance in front of him.  
  
“oh my god,” a woman’s voice says and steve pries his eyes open, breathing through pursed lips. he’s astonished to see pepper potts and tony stark standing in the doorway clutching one another’s arms and looking frantic.  
  
“tony stark!” sam exclaims and his fists drop a little. “and pepper potts, wow, i am in another _dimension.”_  
  
“who the hell are you?” tony demands. then his brow furrows and he waves his hand, snaps his fingers. “wait, wait, i know your face, you’re the one who was flying around like some kamikaze pigeon.”  
  
sam frowns. “kamikaze pigeon? hey, now–”  
  
pepper, meanwhile, has shaken free of tony to approach. her eyes are red-rimmed and shiny like she’s on the verge of tears.  
  
steve frowns, reaching out a hand to her. “pepper, what’s wrong? are you all right?”  
  
“am i–” pepper makes a choked little sound that steve thinks might have attempted to be a laugh. “i’m fine,” she says. “are _you_ okay?”  
  
“i’m fine,” he assures her, even though he feels like hell.  
  
“yeah, you look fine,” tony sneers and his eyes look over-bright, too.  
  
“oh, steve,” pepper says, and the emotion in her voice makes steve’s chest ache. “we thought–we thought you–”  
  
she covers her mouth, blinking furiously and tony takes two rapid steps forward, curling his arm around her. “hey, hey, come on, pep, he’s okay. or he will be anyway,” he amends, shooting a dirty look at steve, like it’s his fault pepper is so upset.  
  
steve glances at sam, but instead of the support he expects, sam is looking at the three of them, brow furrowed like he’s trying to put together a tricky puzzle.  
  
“i don’t understand,” steve confesses.  
  
“christ,” tony all but growls, “neither of us pegged you as the love-‘em-and-leave-'em type, rogers.”  
  
sam’s eyebrows crawl up his forehead and steve’s face floods with heat  
  
“i’m just gonna–” sam starts.  
  
“no, you will not,” pepper says sharply. “close the door, but stay. it will look suspicious if you leave, especially with that look on your face.”  
  
sam opens his mouth and then, wisely, does as pepper says and closes the door. he stands next to it, crossing his arms over his chest, eyes fixed determinedly on the floor.  
  
“what the hell is wrong with you?” tony demands immediately. “were we not clear enough? did you want it written out? maybe we should get matching tattoos with your name emblazoned across a little banner, would that make it clear enough?”  
  
“oh my god,” steve hears sam whisper to himself and his ears feel like they’re on fire.  
  
“i…” he takes a deep breath and musters his courage and then admits, “i didn’t think you were serious.”  
  
“what, you think we just invite _anyone_ into our bed?” tony half-yells and pepper grabs hold of his arm. tony visibly restrains himself. sam sounds like he’s choking on air.  
  
“no–maybe–i don’t know, tony, i guess i thought maybe you were having a little fun with captain america. after i came here i just assumed–”  
  
“okay, one, hurtful. i mean, sure that’s a bonus, but if you _recall_ we took you to dinner at _least_ half a dozen times before we tried to get in your spangly pants. and two–”  
  
“we thought you wanted some space,” pepper says. “you seemed so eager to leave for DC…”  
  
“i’m sorry,” steve says and then hisses, leg buckling under him.  
  
“shit!”  
  
tony lunges forward to catch him and sam barely gets out, “NO DON’T” before he hooks his hand under steve’s arm and catches him, thumb digging into the knife wound on his shoulder.  
  
steve cries out and tony swears again. sam helps him manhandle steve back onto the bed. and tony starts babbling, “fuck, fuck, i’m sorry, steve, i didn’t mean to–god, what the hell _happened_ are these _bullet wounds?_ ”  
  
steve can’t bring himself to think about _how_ he got the injuries so he just grits out, “coupla bullet wounds, yeah, few knife wounds–”  
  
“don’t forget the water in your lungs,” sam contributes _helpfully._  
  
_“steve,”_ pepper says and he swallows hard, and lifts a hand, reaching out for her.  
  
“’m already healing, it’s okay–”  
  
“you are a fucked up son of a bitch, you know that?” tony says.  
  
pepper takes his hand and squeezes it between her own and then leans over him, pressing a kiss to his mouth.  
  
steve marvels, amazed and humbled all at once, the same way he was the first time she kissed him. his luck has never been this good. when he opens his eyes, tony’s standing closer, fingers playing with the paper bracelet around steve’s wrist.  
  
“you’re an idiot,” he says flatly.  
  
“i can’t disagree,” steve says, careful to mean every word.  
  
tony’s eyes flick up. “you scared the devil out of me. out of us.”  
  
“i didn’t mean to.”  
  
“guess i should have expected it. get it through your thick skull, we’re in this until somebody calls it quits, got it?”  
  
“i’ve got a lot to tell you,” steve warns.  
  
“can’t be worse than anything i’ve done,” tony says blithely and leans down to kiss him.

“captain america’s got _game,”_ sam says, giddy.


	3. Steve and Pepper are Cuddling on the Couch and Tony Joins Them

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is my flagship guys and i almost never write it hahaha  
> \--  
>  **Tags:** Fluff, Cuddling, Established Relation, Curtain Fic, Domesticity, Kissing

Tony emerges from the workshop sometime after dinner and out into the penthouse where he finds Steve and Pepper on the couch, their long legs tangled together. Pepper’s wearing a cornflower blue shirt that’s nearly transparent and a pair of white shorts and Steve’s wearing jeans and a rumpled plaid the same color as his eyes. He has one arm looped loosely around Pepper’s waist and they both look so at ease it makes something inside Tony relax, too.

Steve murmurs something in her ear and Pepper laughs, head tipping back on his shoulder and Tony treasures the little smile Steve gives her that she’ll never see. He kind of wants to go dive in between them, but he also kind of wants to stay here and drink in the sight of them for, oh, maybe forever.

They look so _good_ together, all that pale skin and Steve’s smooth bulging muscles framing her smooth, slender limbs, hair in two shades of gold. They’re both covered in freckles too, and from here Tony can only just see the dusting of Pepper’s over the bridge of her nose, but he knows they’re there, Steve’s darker and more punctuated than the soft smattering Pepper has from head to toe.

They both think they know art, but they have no idea.

Pepper kisses Steve’s knuckles, held interlaced with hers and his eyes go soft. He kisses the side of her head and she smiles.

The urge to join them is finally greater than the urge to look. “Evening, Your Highnesses, how are we tonight?”

Both of them smile instantly and Steve says, “Hey, evening yourself. You going to come join us?”

“Don’t mind if I do,” Tony says and leans over him to kiss Pepper, who hums happily into his mouth, dragging the nails of her free hand lightly through his hair. It makes him shiver.

“Hi, honey,” she says warmly and lies back down in the crook of Steve’s shoulder looking smug and satisfied.

Tony just smiles back at her and puts one knee down on the couch by Steve’s thigh, so he can lean down and give Steve the same treatment. His hand skims down Pepper’s leg as they kiss, thumb brushing over the seam of Steve’s jeans and Steve proves yet again that he’s scandalous under all that Good Ole American Boy and slips Tony some tongue.

“Glad you decided to come up,” he says when Tony _whumphs_ down onto the cushion beside him.

“Yeah,” Tony says, tracing a hand lazily down Steve’s chest so he can curl it around Pepper’s hand. “Couldn’t resist this siren call.”

Pepper and Steve both smile at him, and their affection is so palpable it fizzes over his skin, sinking straight to his bones. He’s unbelievably, undeniably happy.


	4. Tony Watches Steve and Pepper Cuddle a Bit Before Joining Them

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Tags:** Established Relationship, Cuddling, Domesticity, Curtain Fic, Kissing, Fluff

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is my flagship guys and i almost never write it hahaha

Tony emerges from the workshop sometime after dinner and out into the penthouse where he finds Steve and Pepper on the couch, their long legs tangled together. Pepper’s wearing a cornflower blue shirt that’s nearly transparent and a pair of white shorts and Steve’s wearing jeans and a rumpled plaid the same color as his eyes. He has one arm looped loosely around Pepper’s waist and they both look so at ease it makes something inside Tony relax, too.

Steve murmurs something in her ear and Pepper laughs, head tipping back on his shoulder and Tony treasures the little smile Steve gives her that she’ll never see. He kind of wants to go dive in between them, but he also kind of wants to stay here and drink in the sight of them for, oh, maybe forever.

They look so  _good_ together, all that pale skin and Steve’s smooth bulging muscles framing her smooth, slender limbs, hair in two shades of gold. They’re both covered in freckles too, and from here Tony can only just see the dusting of Pepper’s over the bridge of her nose, but he knows they’re there, Steve’s darker and more punctuated than the soft smattering Pepper has from head to toe.

They both think they know art, but they have no idea.

Pepper kisses Steve’s knuckles, held interlaced with hers and his eyes go soft. He kisses the side of her head and she smiles.

The urge to join them is finally greater than the urge to look. “Evening, Your Highnesses, how are we tonight?”

Both of them smile instantly and Steve says, “Hey, evening yourself. You going to come join us?”

“Don’t mind if I do,” Tony says and leans over him to kiss Pepper, who hums happily into his mouth, dragging the nails of her free hand lightly through his hair. It makes him shiver.

“Hi, honey,” she says warmly and lies back down in the crook of Steve’s shoulder looking smug and satisfied.

Tony just smiles back at her and puts one knee down on the couch by Steve’s thigh, so he can lean down and give Steve the same treatment. His hand skims down Pepper’s leg as they kiss, thumb brushing over the seam of Steve’s jeans and Steve proves yet again that he’s scandalous under all that Good Ole American Boy and slips Tony some tongue.

“Glad you decided to come up,” he says when Tony  _whumphs_ down onto the cushion beside him.

“Yeah,” Tony says, tracing a hand lazily down Steve’s chest so he can curl it around Pepper’s hand. “Couldn’t resist this siren call.”

Pepper and Steve both smile at him, and their affection is so palpable it fizzes over his skin, sinking straight to his bones. He’s unbelievably, undeniably happy.


End file.
